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Tunisia is widely seen as the one country that, having experienced a ‘people power’ revolution in the Arab Spring in 2011, succeeded in developing and maintaining a democratic constitutional system thereafter. Yet there have been many difficulties, including low voter participation and a weak economy. What are the best explanations of why Tunisia achieved its albeit modest degree of success? How did members of parliament for rival parties – whether avowedly secular or explicitly Islamic – manage to cooperate in practice? And why did the other revolutions run into such difficulties, including in several cases wars?

Desmond King has contributed to an article on Medium (11 November) on the election of Donald Trump as the next US President. The article also features contributions from other members of the University of Oxford, including the Chancellor, Chris Patten.

Nic Cheeseman has written an article for Open Democracy (24 February) entitled 'Parliaments and the defence of democracy'. In it he explores the reaons why "(s)ome of the most repressive policies introduced in recent times were debated and passed by elected parliaments."

Susan Dosworth has written an article for Open Democracy (23 February) entitled 'Politics and parliamentary strengthening: where to now?' The article deals with a project that she and Nic Cheeseman are working on with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy called 'The Political Economy of Democracy Promotion Project'.